Grizzard Research Examines Why We Love Bad Characters

Published
May 25, 2017

Recently published research by Assistant Professor Matthew
Grizzard, alongside COM graduate students Jialing Huang,
Kaitlin Fitzgerald, Changhyun Ahn and Haoran Chu, suggests that
they way in which characters are framed has a lot to do with
whether we like them or not, regardless of their morality. The
research, which has implications ranging from better understanding
our relationship to fictional narratives, to possibly improving the
effectiveness of character-based public service campaigns, examines
how we perceive fictional heroes and villains, and explains why we
love Walter White from Breaking Bad, even as he
becomes better and better at being bad.